The present invention relates generally to motor vehicle wheel balancing equipment and more particularly to an operator keyboard and display pod on a wheel balancer which allows vertical, rotational, and horizontal adjustment of the pod.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that automotive service equipment, such as a wheel balancing machine, usually includes a base unit which houses a motor drive assembly for rotating the wheel to be balanced, a power supply, and tool and weight tray. Such a machine will also have an operator interface which includes a keyboard or switch assembly for entering data and for controlling operations, as well as an electronic display which reflects information concerning the status and operation of the machine. In many prior art balancers, the operator keyboard/display is integral to the machine base and is not adjustable. In others, a physically separated "pod" is attached to and extends vertically above the base and which contains the keyboard, display, or both.
It will further be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the operator interface pod should be adjustable so that any sized machine operator can easily view the display and operate the keyboard from many different directions and under a variety of ambient lighting conditions.
A few attempts have been made in the prior art to provide adjustable pods on wheel balancers, with limited success. For example, the Corghi EM 89 Wheel Balancer has a pod which rotates and moves horizontally but cannot be moved vertically or tilted.
The Hoffman Geodyna 100 has a pod which extends from a support which can be tilted but can not be rotated or moved vertically or horizontally.
The MF MT 6000 pod sits on a support. The pod can be rotated about the support but can not be moved vertically, horizontally, or tilted.
The operator interfaces on the Coats Model 1004, Model 1001, Model 850, Model 600, and Model 6401 are fixed and cannot be tilted or rotated.
In addition to lacking complete adjustability, prior art wheel balancer pods have a further deficiency in the amount of space they take up during shipping and storage. Such pods either must be completely removed or an oversize container must be used to secure the pod which is fully or partially extended from the base unit.
What is needed, then, is an operator interface pod for a wheel balancer which allows the pod to slide, rotate, and pivot through multiple degrees of freedom. This interface pod must also be adjustable both horizontally as well as vertically, including into a position proximate to the base unit where it occupies minimal space during packing and shipping. This device is presently lacking in the prior art.